Union Leader Takes Case To Caterpillar Shareholders

By JONATHAN P. HICKS,

Published: April 9, 1992

WILMINGTON, Del., April 8—
The management of Caterpillar Inc. engaged in a tussle of words with a top official of the United Auto Workers at the company's annual shareholders meeting here today. And by the end of the tense meeting, it seemed as unlikely as ever that the two sides would sit down soon to try to resolve a five-month-old strike by 12,600 union members that may cost them their jobs.

Bill Casstevens, secretary treasurer of the union, appeared at the meeting, seeking to address the stockholders in response to a long presentation given by the company on the labor dispute.

Caterpillar's chairman, Donald V. Fites, repeatedly asked Mr. Casstevens to sit down when the union leader tried to speak. Ultimately, Mr. Casstevens, who is a company shareholder, was allowed to have the floor during a question-and-answer period.

Mr. Fites, who has relegated the day-to-day statements regarding the strike to other company officials, repeatedly said that Caterpillar was not trying to break the union and that the company would still like to see a negotiated settlement to the strike. He said the company would be willing to review a union proposal if one were submitted. Replacement Workers

"Breaking this union is the last thing we want to do," Mr. Fites said.

Caterpillar, the world's largest maker of earth-moving equipment, announced last week from its headquarters in Peoria, Ill., that it would start to replace striking union members if they failed to return to their jobs by April 6.

The company has asserted that more than 400 of the striking workers have crossed the picket lines since then and, according to Mr. Fites, newspaper advertisements about the job openings have attracted about 47,000 telephone calls from people seeking information.

Caterpillar executives said that more union members crossed the picket lines today to return to their jobs but that the company would no longer give figures on the number of workers who cross the picket line.

"We think that it would be counterproductive to do so," Mr. Fites said.

But the United Auto Workers, whose members are keeping vigil at each entrance to the company's plants throughout the Midwest, said that the company figures had been far too high.

About 100 members of union surrounded the hotel in downtown Wilmington that was the site of the shareholders meeting carrying picket signs reading "Will Rogers Never Met Don Fites" and other slogans. Security was tight, with a team of security guards hired by Caterpillar surrounding the ballroom at the Dupont Hotel, where the meeting was held. 'Our Side of Story'

Mr. Casstevens, speaking to the shareholders, complained that the company was seeking to provide far less generous health care and retirement benefits than Deere & Company workers had recently won and that the company had unfairly portrayed the terms of the offer and the course of the negotiations.

"Why don't you let us tell these shareholders our side of the story?" he yelled at Mr. Fites from the middle of the audience, as the chairman implored him to be seated.

In Washington, a group of 15 Senators today asked Labor Secretary Lynn Martin to intervene in the labor dispute. The 15 Senators, including two Republicans, cautioned that hiring non-union workers to replace the strikers would lead the strike to become "a far more contentious struggle," adding that the existence of the company could become an issue.

"Surely the experience at Eastern Airlines, Greyhound and the New York Daily News and countless other, less publicized disputes has shown that the introduction of permanent replacements is counterproductive," the Senators said in a letter to Ms. Martin.

In a news conference after the annual meeting, Mr. Fites said he had kept the Labor Department informed of the company's activities in dealing with the union. However, he added that "we don't see a role for them to play in this process at this time."

Both at the press conference and at the annual meeting, Mr. Fites continued to attack what he called the union's insistence on pattern bargaining, under which a union seeks similar agreements from a number of companies in the same industry. He complained that the U.A.W.'s demand that Caterpillar match a labor pact reached last year with Deere, would render the company uncompetitive with the foreign makers of machinery against whom Caterpillar competes.

Mr. Fites denied that the strike had crippled the company's production, saying that demand had dropped sharply from the economic recession in the United States and the slowdown in the economies in other parts of the world. "We have not lost a single sale, as far as we can tell, as a result of this strike," Mr. Fites said. "Our problem isn't supply, it's demand."

He said that Caterpillar executives have discovered that they could operate their plants with 10 to 15 percent fewer workers, as a result of efficiencies that have been gained from upgrading the company's operations. The company's plants are now being operated by 4,000 salaried personnel. 'Gone Overboard'

During the two-hour annual meeting, several shareholders expressed confidence in the company's handling of the labor dispute. One shareholder said that he considered the company's proposed contract too generous to the union. "I'm concerned that you're pricing yourself out of your competitive position," said the shareholder, Harry W. Craig, a dealer of Caterpillar products. "I urge you to consider that maybe you've gone overboard."

But several Caterpillar workers were among the shareholders and they complained that the company had not treated workers fairly in the contract negotiations.

"You've laid out a lot of things that are false," Mr. Casstevens said in a thunderous voice early in the meeting before he was finally allowed to speak. "You've told your side. They're entitled to hear the other."

Mr. Fites shouted back: "This is not a debate and it is not a bargaining session. It is not a press conference."

The annual meeting dealt principally with the routine affairs of the company: the election of directors, voting on various resolutions and a report on the company's profitability. But the strike was at the center of most shareholders' interest.

After the meeting, Mr. Casstevens met with reporters and said that there were no plans to present Caterpillar with a contract proposal. "They said their offer is final," he said. "But we are willing to sit down and negotiate with management as long as they agree that there are no preconditions," meaning that the company would first have to withdraw its most recent offer, which the union has rejected.